Abstract

This article presents the results obtained for humic acid (HA) degradation in drinking water by means of an ozonation process in the presence of a nonpolar bonded alumina phase. It was observed that (perflurooctylalumina) (PFOA) is characterized by its high adsorption capacity toward HA. The adsorption properties of bare alumina and alumina modified with perfluorooctanoic acid appeared to differ significantly toward the various organic substances examined. The ozonation process carried out in the presence of PFOA was found to be more efficient for the removal of HA from water than the other two examined ozonation systems: ozonation alone and ozonation in the presence of bare alumina; however, a catalytic activity of bare alumina cannot be denied. The effect of by-products formation and changes in the molecular size distribution of HA were studied in the case of all three examined ozonation systems. The influence of catalyst dosage and ozonation time was also investigated.